There will be something much bigger than medals on the line for the Canadian women's hockey team at the Olympic Winter Games in Sochi.

While the Canadian women pursue a fourth-straight gold medal, their entire sport will essentially be on trial, playing desperation hockey to stay alive as an Olympic event.

Women's hockey could be on the bubble at future Olympics because there simply aren't enough competitive nations. It's almost always Canada and the U.S. at the top and those teams just keep getting better while other countries struggle to provide a semblance of balance.

"The reality is that often we are in a lose-lose situation," Canadian veteran Caroline Ouelette said. "If we play as well as we can play and we end up beating an opponent by a large margin, then some people will say that we are not respectful. If we don't play as well as we can play, we are cheating ourselves, we are cheating our performance, we are cheating our preparation, we are cheating the opportunity to display the best level of women's hockey we have to offer."

At the women's world hockey championship in Ottawa last April, Canada beat the U.S. 3-2 in a shootout in the preliminary round and lost 3-2 to the U.S., in the gold-medal game. In between, they beat Switzerland 13-0, Finland 8-0 and bronze medallist Russia 8-1.

Ouellette said despite the lopsided scores, the competition was actually much better than in years past.

"We do not take our sport in the Olympics for granted," she said. "But, on the other hand, there's only so many things we can control and that is our own performance. We keep wanting to be better, we keep wanting to improve our sport. It's not that the world isn't catching up, it's that Canada and the U.S. are better every year. I think the last world championship in Ottawa showed that the gap is really decreasing every year. We had really close games against Finland and Finland had a really good semifinal against the U.S., and then Russia went on to win the bronze medal for the first time in more than a decade.

"The Russian women's hockey team showed that you can have results so quickly if you invest in the athletes."

Ouelette, a 34-year-old forward and three-time Olympic gold medallist, said European countries appreciate that Canada is the standard they all want to reach and are trying to build their programs in that model. The question is, will there be time before the International Olympic Committee loses patience?

"We've existed at the world championship level since 1990, so it's been 23 years," Ouellette said. "We have to give this sport time. Russia hired Alexei Yashin to become the general manager and for the first time the Russian athletes saw that someone cared about them and wanted to help them improve. We have a group of passionate athletes around the world that want to play hockey, that want to be the best possible for their own country, but we need outside resources, we need good coaching and we need to feel that people care about us. Like we feel that Hockey Canada cares about us."

There are more than 100,000 female hockey players in Canada, likely more than the rest of the world combined (the U.S. has 60,000).

In Russia there are only about 300 and numbers are similar in places like Germany, Switzerland, Sweden and Finland.

"Challenge the hockey federations to show the numbers on how much they invest in women's hockey and the development of the sport and you'll have your answers right there," Ouelette said. "If there are no programs that initiate the girls to try the sports, then we don't have a big enough base of players to pick the best from."

Sadly, Canada is the country with the most to win and the most to lose in women's hockey, but like Ouellette said, there's only so much they can do.

CANADA-U.S. SERIES

To be the best, you have to play against the best, so Canada and the U.S. will try to use one another as springboards to gold in Sochi.

The two countries will play the second of six pre-Olympic matches Thursday night in Boisbrand, Que.

Canada beat the U.S. 3-2 in the first game last Sunday in Burlington, Vt.

"We have a very strong team and so do the Americans," Canadian forward Caroline Ouelette said. "In the last two years not one of the two countries has beaten the other one twice in a row."

"We cannot take it for granted that we will just make it to the (Olympic) final. It is our objective but we've had some really close games against some of the other countries."

Even as it's women's hockey dynasty continues, Canada is always rebuilding and has a more youthful centralized roster this season, with 10 players aged 23 or younger. Ouellette says that's the key to staying with the always-improving U.S. team.

"Our young players are so great," she said. "So talented, skilled. They are fit because they grow in our Under-18 and Under-22 programs. They get to the senior level and they are already confident, they know what to expect. It's been a real privelege to see our young players develop. They push me to want to be better every day. They have skills that I'll never have in my life but still I want to work at them and improve them."

Women's hockey in a lose-lose situation in Sochi

There will be something much bigger than medals on the line for the Canadian women's hockey team at the Olympic Winter Games in Sochi.

While the Canadian women pursue a fourth-straight gold medal, their entire sport will essentially be on trial, playing desperation hockey to stay alive as an Olympic event.

Women's hockey could be on the bubble at future Olympics because there simply aren't enough competitive nations. It's almost always Canada and the U.S. at the top and those teams just keep getting better while other countries struggle to provide a semblance of balance.